Iowa

After blizzard, Iowa faces days of ‘life-threatening’ wind chills

Published

2 years ago

January 13, 2024

After blizzard, Iowa faces days of ‘life-threatening’ wind chills

As Des Moines’ second snowstorm of the week punished the area with more than 6 inches of fresh snow, Iowans could be forgiven for getting whiplash from how quickly the weather changed.

Des Moines received an estimated 21.3 inches of snow since Monday, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Chad Hahn. That would be just shy of the all-time record for a five-day stretch.

Des Moines’ highest five-day snow total came when 22.7 inches fell between Dec. 28, 1941, and Jan. 1, 1942, according to the NWS. The city got 20.2 inches of snow from March 14-18 1923 and 17.7 inches from Dec. 5-9, 2009.

Elsewhere in the state, totals from Friday’s storm topped 1 foot with Fairfield reporting 14 inches of fresh snow, 13 in Muscatine and Washington with 12 inches.

But as snow drifts grow ever higher, temperatures will sink to dangerously cold levels over the next few days as arctic air flows into the Midwest.

Wind chills were expected to dip into the negative 20s overnight on Friday and won’t climb above 0 until Wednesday, said NWS meteorologist Alexis Jimenez.

Des Moines’ second-warmest December on record

Des Moines had an average temperature of 37.4 degrees in December, making it the warmest December since 1889, according to WOI. Nine days had temperatures of more than 50 degrees, including Dec. 7 when the city hit a high of 61 degrees. Only on Dec. 31 did the city have a high temperature below freezing, and on that day the high was 31 degrees.

Overall Iowa experienced its third-warmest December in 151 years, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

‘Wind chills can be life-threatening’

Just last week Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said before an interview with the Des Moines Register that he was thankful that he had not gotten to experience the worst of Iowa’s winter weather as he campaigned. Now, ‘life-threatening’ wind chills are on the way.

Within about a week in January, the National Weather Service has issued a flurry of winter weather watches and warnings. In the last week, it has issued a blizzard warning, winter storm warnings, winter storm watches, winter weather advisories, wind chill warnings, wind chill watches and wind chill advisories.

On Wednesday night the weather service even issued a rare snow squall warning when a snow squall hit the Des Moines metro area, bringing 1.2 inches of snow in a short duration.

The snow Friday made travel conditions dangerous, but sub-zero temperatures will settle in through at least Tuesday, according to the NWS. Arctic air will spill into the Midwest, and could lead to record low temperatures of negative 20 degrees or negative 30 degrees, according to an NWS forecast.

On Saturday, Des Moines will have a high temperature of 5 degrees and a low of minus 13 degrees, according to the NWS. Sunday’s high of minus 5 degrees will not feel so high, and winds could gust as high as 20 to 30 mph. Wind chills on Sunday could make it feel as cold as minus 30 to minus 35 degrees.

Some places in the Midwest could approach real temperatures of 40 degrees below zero, according to the NWS. These extreme temperatures can cause frostbite within minutes, an NWS forecast warned.

“These temperatures and wind chills can be life-threatening for stranded motorists,” the NWS warned.

Temperatures will slowly rise throughout the start of next week, but wind chills are expected to stay below 0 until Wednesday. For Monday’s Iowa Caucuses, Des Moines has a forecast high of minus 3 degrees. Tuesday’s temperatures could finally rise above zero with a forecast high of 1 degree, according to the NWS.

Friday blizzard caused delays and dangerous travel

Friday’s storm hobbled much of the Midwest. Winter storm warnings were issued from eastern Nebraska and northern Missouri to the upper peninsula of Michigan. The greatest impacts from Friday’s snowstorm were expected place portions of Wisconsin and Michigan where more than a foot of snow was expected and winds of 40 to 50 mph could produce blizzard conditions.

In Iowa, large portions of the state’s highways were rated “travel not advised” for most of Friday as Iowa Department of Transportation plows struggled to keep up with Mother Nature. On social media, the DOT said some roads were covered in drifts within minutes of plows passing through.

The Iowa State Patrol said at 10 p.m. that it had responded to more than 70 crashes across the state, including 14 with injuries and 436 calls to assist motorists.

An “energetic” jet stream is driving a pair of storms across the country, and leading to this weekend’s active weather, to the NWS. In the southeast thunderstorms producing tornadoes and damaging winds could flare up this weekend, according to the NWS.

Des Moines Register reporter Victoria Reyna-Rodriguez contributed to this report.

Philip Joens covers public safety, retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

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Iowa

Iowa State football running back Carson Hansen to leave Cyclones

Published

10 hours ago

December 24, 2025

Press Room

Iowa State football running back Carson Hansen to leave Cyclones

Iowa State football running back Carson Hansen announced on Dec. 23 that he “will be pursuing new opportunities with my last year of eligibility.”

Hansen is the latest Cyclones star to indicate that he will transfer to another school in the wake of coach Matt Campbell’s departure to Penn State. Quarterback Rocco Becht and cornerbacks Jeremiah Cooper and Jontez Williams are among the other Iowa State standouts leaving Ames.

Hansen, a native of Lakeville, Minn., rushed for 952 yards on 188 carries during his junior season with the Cyclones. In three years with Iowa State, he compiled 1,771 yards and 19 touchdowns on the ground.

Hansen was the Cyclones’ leading rusher in 2024 and 2025.

“My three years here at Iowa State have been a life changing experience because of the people who make up Ames …” Hansen wrote on Twitter/X. “Thank you to the fans that shook Jack Trice every Saturday and for your belief in this football team.”

Campbell announced on Dec. 5 that he was leaving Iowa State after 10 years as the Cyclones’ head coach. He was quickly succeeded by Washington State’s Jimmy Rogers, who has a big job in front of him to replace the exodus of talent transferring out of Ames.

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Iowa

Iowa Supreme Court overturns doctor’s child sex abuse conviction

Published

23 hours ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

Iowa Supreme Court overturns doctor’s child sex abuse conviction

The Iowa Supreme Court overturned the sexual abuse conviction of a West Des Moines doctor.
The court ruled that allowing the child victim to testify via one-way video violated the Iowa Constitution.
This decision is one of several that has set Iowa apart from other states on the issue of remote testimony.

The Iowa Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a West Des Moines doctor found guilty of sexually abusing a child, ruling that allowing the victim to testify via one-way video violated the Iowa Constitution.

The court on Tuesday, Dec. 23, reversed the conviction of Lynn Melvin Lindaman, a longtime central Iowa surgeon who practiced at the Lindaman Orthopaedics clinic in West Des Moines before he was charged in 2023 with second-degree sexual abuse. The case was remanded for a new trial.

The decision is the latest in a string of rulings that have set Iowa apart as the only state in the country whose highest court has barred one-way video testimony in criminal trials, even in cases involving child victims.

Those decisions already have begun reshaping prosecutions across the state and have prompted lawmakers to launch the process of amending the Iowa Constitution. The change would ultimately require voter approval.

Lindaman, now 75, was convicted after a jury trial in Polk County. Prosecutors alleged that on June 26, 2023, he committed a sex act in Ankeny against a child under the age of 10. A second count of sexual abuse was dismissed prior to trial. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of 42½ years because of a prior sexual predatory offense in 1976. He also faced a separate and now-dismissed civil lawsuit from an Iowa woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her in 1975.

The Iowa Offender Search still lists Lindaman as in custody of the Iowa Medical & Classification Center.

On appeal, Lindaman argued that his constitutional rights were violated when the district court allowed the child to testify from another room via one-way closed-circuit television, rather than from the witness stand in the courtroom.

“Today’s decision from the Iowa Supreme Court is an important win for Lynn Lindaman and a major step toward a fair result,” said Lucas Taylor, the attorney representing Lindaman. “Although the court did not rule in our favor on every issue, this ruling recognizes serious errors in the prior proceedings and gives Mr. Lindaman the chance to present his defense to a new jury.”

In a 4-3 ruling issued earlier this year in State v. White, the Iowa Supreme Court agreed with that argument, holding that one-way video testimony violates the confrontation clause of the Iowa Constitution. Writing for the majority in that case, Justice David May said that “when the accused and the witness are prevented from seeing each other, there is no face-to-face confrontation, and the Iowa Constitution is not satisfied.”

The ruling came despite U.S. Supreme Court precedent allowing such testimony and laws in many other states permitting it. Under the Iowa statute the court overturned, judges had been allowed to authorize remote testimony by minors, or witnesses with mental illnesses or disabilities, if a judge found that “trauma caused by testifying in the physical presence of the defendant … would impair the minor’s ability to communicate.”

The White decision arose from an Osceola County case, but its effects have since spread and courts across Iowa have begun hearing challenges from defendants convicted in cases where one-way video testimony was used.

Following the ruling, Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the Polk County Attorney’s Office, said at least five Polk County defendants convicted under similar circumstances could be entitled to new trials.

One of those defendants, Michael Dunbar, already has received a new trial. Dunbar was resentenced after the victim testified in person from the witness stand, and the court again imposed a life sentence.

Dissent fuels push to amend Iowa Constitution

The State v. White ruling has drawn sharp criticism from prosecutors and state leaders, including Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, who has argued the decision unnecessarily traumatizes child victims.

Bird has proposed a constitutional amendment to allow children to testify remotely in certain cases. The measure has passed both chambers of the Legislature once and must pass again before going to voters in a statewide referendum.

“Children shouldn’t be forced to testify at arm’s length from their abusers, and many kids can’t. This opinion shows how important it is to restore protections for a child victim to testify remotely,” Bird said in a Tuesday statement to the Des Moines Register. “Our office will continue to fight for a constitutional amendment to ensure kids are protected and abusers are brought to justice. We are grateful our effort has received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Iowa Legislature.”

Justice Thomas D. Waterman, writing in a dissent in the opinion issued Tuesday, rejected the majority’s historical interpretation of the confrontation clause.

“Thunder comes during rainstorms; it does not follow that thunder requires rain. That video testimony was not used in 1871 tells us more about technology than it does about constitutional interpretation,” Waterman wrote.

He also said there is “no historical evidence that the framers of the Iowa Constitution intended a different meaning for confrontation rights than the Sixth Amendment,” and warned that the majority was reading requirements into Iowa’s Constitution that do not exist in its text.

Nick El Hajj is a reporter at the Register. He can be reached at nelhajj@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @nick_el_hajj.

This story was updated to add new information and to correct an inaccuracy.

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